Turning Points and Protective Processes: A Qualitative Study on Resilient Youth Through Their Perspective as Resilient Adults

This study investigates the processes of resiliency and the turning points of decision-making in youth from at-risk environments. The study utilizes a constructivist, qualitative approach, to examine indicators of resiliency from both an individual and contextual perspective. The narrative descriptions of eleven adults from at-risk childhoods are analyzed through biographical interviews. Analyses were completed to determine common factors that contribute to the process of resiliency in successful adults. Results indicate that the influences of risk on healthy functioning are modified by shifting environmental protective factors, resources, and developed attributes of self-efficacy. Risk and adversity had a strengthening effect that contributed to participant success in adult life

Kentucky Pharmacist Opinions of the Potential Reclassification of Pseudophedrine as a Legend Drug

Methamphetamine is a drug of abuse, which is often produced in clandestine laboratories. Recent efforts to curb methamphetamine abuse are aimed at controlling access to precursors, including pseudoephedrine (PSE), used in illicit methamphetamine production. Currently, access to PSE is controlled in Kentucky by placement behind pharmacy counters, retail quantity limitations and electronic tracking. Recent legislation proposed in Kentucky to change PSE from non-prescription to a legend medication was unsuccessful and highly controversial. The objective of this project is to collect and analyze pharmacists’ opinions on the effectiveness of current precursor controls, proposed legislation to make PSE a legend drug and impact on their practice and patients. This research has been approved by the University of Kentucky Institutional Review Board and utilizes survey methodology to obtain opinions of Kentucky pharmacists regarding the recent proposed legislation to make PSE a legend drug. Survey questions included perceived efficacy of current precursor controls, anticipated impact on individual pharmacy practice and patients and current opinion in regards to the proposed legislation. For this project, all surveys were conducted anonymously with no identifying information collected. A simple random sample of pharmacists (n=2000) was drawn from a list of all licensed pharmacists in the Commonwealth of Kentucky, excluding pharmacists with an out-of-state practice address. The survey response rate was 30.6%. Pharmacists practicing in a hospital or “other” setting were excluded from the analysis, as their practice sites are not directly impacted by PSE sales. The final group for analysis included 431 pharmacists practicing in a chain or independent community pharmacy setting. This research has been approved by the University of Kentucky Institutional Review Board and utilizes survey methodology to obtain opinions of Kentucky pharmacists regarding the recent proposed legislation to make PSE a legend drug. Survey questions included perceived efficacy of current precursor controls, anticipated impact on individual pharmacy practice and patients and current opinion in regards to the proposed legislation. For this project, all surveys were conducted anonymously with no identifying information collected. A simple random sample of pharmacists (n=2000) was drawn from a list of all licensed pharmacists in the Commonwealth of Kentucky, excluding pharmacists with an out-of-state practice address. The survey response rate was 30.6%. Pharmacists practicing in a hospital or “other” setting were excluded from the analysis, as their practice sites are not directly impacted by PSE sales. The final group for analysis included 431 pharmacists practicing in a chain or independent community pharmacy setting. The 2012 Pseudoephedrine Survey for Pharmacists showed that 56.2% of Kentucky pharmacists practicing in a community pharmacy support the proposed legislation to make PSE available by prescription-only, 30.7% oppose the legislation and 13.1% are unsure. Furthermore, independent and chain pharmacists significantly differ in the average number of prescriptions filled per day, number of PSE purchases per day and the number of years in practice. Practice site significantly impacts support for the proposed legislation with chain pharmacists being 2.90 times more likely to support the legislation to make PSE prescription-only. One possible explanation for this difference is that independent pharmacists may exhibit more autonomy in the decision making process to sell or not sell PSE to potential customers. Additional factors that influence pharmacist support of the legislation include: anticipated impact of making PSE prescription-only on time spent on PSE-related activities and pharmacy profits, Kentucky region of pharmacy practice, and anticipated impact of making PSE prescription-only on methamphetamine abuse and laboratory incidents. Kentucky region of pharmacy practice appears to have a large impact on pharmacist support of the legislation. Regions, such as 4 western, eastern, and southern Kentucky, associated more strongly with methamphetamine appear to more strongly support the proposed legislation

Mary Hunter. The Culture of Opera Buffa in Mozart's Vienna: A Poetics of Entertainment.

Monson's review of Mary Hunter's The Culture of Opera Buffa in Mozart's Vienna: A Poetics of Entertainment, describes the unique methodology Hunter implements analyzing Mozart. Hunter's work, Monson explains, establishes a pattern for interpreting opera that will surely be imitated. If her thoroughly systematic approach to unraveling meaning in opera is followed in similarly uncompromising, contextual analysis, there is much of eighteenth-century opera, of all kinds and locations, that we will yet learn

Recent Distribution Records of the Little Brown Bat, Myotis lucifugus, in Manitoba and Northwestern Ontario

Until recently, the distribution of the Little Brown Bat (Myotis lucifugus) in Manitoba and northwestern Ontario was poorly documented. Since 1988, we have been banding and recapturing little browns throughout Manitoba and adjacent Lake of the Woods region in Ontario. All known hibernacula in the study area are recorded here for the first time, along with time of emergence. Connections between some hibernacula and summer nurseries are verified by band returns, ranging from 37 to 540 km

A compact fluorescence and polarization near-field scanning optical microscope

We present a transmission, fluorescence, and polarization near-field scanning optical microscope with shear-force feedback control that is small in size and simple to operate. This microscope features an ultrafine mechanical tip/sample approach with continuous manual submicron control over a range of several millimeters. The piezo-driven 12 μm x-yx-y scan range is complimented by a 4 mm coarse mechanical translation range in each direction. The construction materials used in the mechanical feedback loop have been carefully chosen for thermal compatibility in order to reduce differential expansion and contraction between the tip and sample. A unique pressure-fit sample mount allows for quick and reliable sample exchange. Shear-force feedback light is delivered to the scan head via an optical fiber so that a remote laser of any type may be used as a source. This dither light is collimated and refocused onto the tip, delivering a consistently small spot which is collected by a high numerical aperture objective. This new scan head incorporates an optical system which will permit the linearization of scan piezo response similar to a scheme used successfully with atomic force microscopy. This is designed to both overcome the piezo’s inherent hysteresis and to eliminate drift during long duration spatial scans or spectroscopic measurements at a single location. The scan head design offers added flexibility due to the use of optical fibers to deliver the dither and scan linearization light, and functions in any orientation for use in conjunction with upright or inverted optical microscopes. © 1998 American Institute of Physics.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/70291/2/RSINAK-69-7-2685-1.pd

Regular Incidence Complexes, Polytopes, and C-Groups

Regular incidence complexes are combinatorial incidence structures generalizing regular convex polytopes, regular complex polytopes, various types of incidence geometries, and many other highly symmetric objects. The special case of abstract regular polytopes has been well-studied. The paper describes the combinatorial structure of a regular incidence complex in terms of a system of distinguished generating subgroups of its automorphism group or a flag-transitive subgroup. Then the groups admitting a flag-transitive action on an incidence complex are characterized as generalized string C-groups. Further, extensions of regular incidence complexes are studied, and certain incidence complexes particularly close to abstract polytopes, called abstract polytope complexes, are investigated.Comment: 24 pages; to appear in "Discrete Geometry and Symmetry", M. Conder, A. Deza, and A. Ivic Weiss (eds), Springe